Personal Professional Development & Enterprise: OUPD201

Now its come to the end of the year, and I am getting ready for my PPD presentation, I have looked back on the previous targets I made for things I wanted to achieve this year and to see how well I have done. I’m really happy with what I have learnt, but as always, there are things that I need to focus more attention on as well as new targets to ensure I am continually developing. I have improved so much since this time last year so hopefully this time next year I will be amazing!

Favourite modules - CTS & Image Elective

CTS is always really interesting for me and felt quite passionate about the subject of my essay
Image was the first module where I’ve created work I’ve been proud of and would be happy to put in my portfolio so this module has really helped my confidence in my work

Least favourite - After Effects

Didn’t really feel that relevant to my design practice
Spend a lot of time on it that wasn’t reflected in my grades

Things I have achieved this year

Learnt how to design properly for print
Improved Indesign and Illustrator, learnt Dreamweaver and After Effects
How to design a website
Better concept building skills
Improved teamwork skills through enterprise and collaboration
Greater knowledge of CTS
Experimented with new processes such as laser cutting, letter pressing and printing on to different stocks / sizes than what I usually stick with
A lot more organised and make realistic choices based on time and money available
Linking design context and practice a lot more
Learnt business studies skills
Learnt how to promote myself
Feel more confident in my work
Better quality and quantity of work than last year
Continuous weekly evaluations of each module
More care with presentation of work

Things I need to improve on

Continuous improvement of software skills needed
More relevant research to have an impact on my designs
Not be afraid to take risks, be more experimental with my designs
Keep up to date with self promotion, networking!
Attend workshops to refresh skills like book binding and screen printing
Continue to work on photography skills
Professional practice work - my own projects
Greater knowledge of type

Old Targets - How Have I done?

1. To take advantage of the printing facilities, such as screen printing

I still haven’t screen printed as I haven’t really found a time when it will be relevant to do so, but i aim to screen print for fun over Summer so that with a revised knowledge of how to do this, I may feel more like printing this way next year.

2. To not be lazy and use the resources at Vernon street

Since last evaluating, I haven’t actually been back to Vernon Street, and am really aware that I need to recap on my book binding skills. I did letter press at Vernon street earlier in the year and taking it upon myself to learn a new skill was rewarding.

3. To be able to ask for help when I need it

I’m regularly asking for help outside crits and have made use of the tutors support so I feel I have achieved this target, but need to continue to ask for help to make sure I’m not just keeping my designs to myself without feedback.

4. To create a moving image and learn how to use the required software

This is what I did for the OUGD202 module so I have completed this target, and would like to create another moving image at some point so I don’t lose this new skill.

5. To put in to use the new skills I have learnt in inductions

I haven’t had an induction in a long time, but I would like to recap on first year ones such as book binding.

6. To use initiative and take it upon myself to learn and try new things that what we have been told to

Over summer will be my perfect opportunity to work on this target, by completing online tutorials and using books I have bought to teach me new skills, as well as asking friends to share their knowledge with me.

7. To feel more confident and proud about my work, and enter competitions or try to get some freelance work

I have entered two YCN competitions as part of the OUGD203 module and will be entering more over Summer when I have time to concentrate on them. I do feel more confident in my work, which can be seen through me setting up a tumblr so people can look at my work. I feel as if I have achieved this target but it is a continuos one that I need to keep on top of.

8. To get the most out of every day at college by arriving early and staying late

I definitely do a lot more work inside and out of college than I did last year, so I feel as if I have done as much as I can for each module.

9. To update my design context blog more regularly and make sure there is a link between the work I am putting on there and my design practice work

Again this seems to be my biggest weakness as I don’t want to just copy off what exists, I want to create original work. However, I understand how my work can improve by linking my design context and practice work, and think spending time daily looking for inspiration in books, magazines and design websites will help me to find work I aspire to create work like.

10. To make my briefs 'live' and actually usable and useful

I think I have achieved this as I’ve been making realistic choices to do with time and money constraints.

11. Celebrate my favourite work - create a website for others to see

I have created a tumblr which is my main source of promotion, however, I am in the progress of creating my own website, so at the end of Summer this should be done. This is another continuos target as the website and social media outcomes need to be updated all the time to keep my audience interested.

12. To get my work 'out there' - promote myself

This links to the above target.

13. To sell some work

I really haven’t had time to do this yet, but it is one of the first things I want to consider over Summer as I think it would be beneficial to put my enterprise skills in place and fun to create designs that aren’t for college work. I would like to set up an etsy store and maybe take part in a craft fair.

14. Discover other websites and forms of social media that could be useful to promote work

Again I have started this and need to keep this up throughout the rest of the course.

New Targets for 3rd Year

To recap on and put in use skills that I have learnt, such as book binding, laser cutting, screen printing, letter pressing etc, to create more interesting and unique work.
To enter competitions and to start my own projects outside of the course, including collaborations, to improve my professional practice.
To sell some work online and to sell at a craft fair.
To daily look for design inspiration and update my design context blog more regularly, making sure there is a link between the work I am putting on there and my design practice work
To gain a greater knowledge of type and experiment with type only pieces as I didn’t do the type module I feel as if I am behind others.
To do a tutorial a day, to improve software skills, and ask others for help when necessary.
To not be afraid to take risks, and be more experimental with my designs.
To keep up with self promotion, regularly updating my social media sites and networking with other designers.
To continue to work on photography skills to improve the presentation of final pieces.
To do collaboration work, either with other graphic designers or with artists from other courses.

At the end of Summer I'll have a recap and see if I've improved on any of these skills yet!

Final Presentation

This is my final presentation design, which matches in with the rest of my branding. I have kept it quite simple so I don't end up just reading off the slides.

//

I was very nervous as I expected I would be and ended up speaking twice as fast as normal, meaning that my presentation was shorter than it should have been. Apart from that, I think I did speak loud enough and got more confident towards the end. I don't know if I'll ever be good at speaking out in front of a crowd, especially about myself.

Feedback after the presentation from John:

- Don't use as much text as people read off this rather than listening to you, you just need images to remind you what to say
- Write more stuff about where you have applied for placements
- Don't hand things out until the end as again people look at this rather than listening

I have another presentation to do after Summer so hopefully I can practice and get better at my presenting before then.

Thursday, 31 May 2012

Selling Work

I have been wanting to start selling some work online for a long time, and now summer is approaching its the perfect time to start designing and printing. As research, I thought this would be the perfect excuse to buy a few things of some of my favourite designers to see how they do things. I've found out that special extras, taking care with the packaging, and adding a business card or something that links back to your sites so if they like your work they can come back is a good idea for more business.

I want to re-work some designs I've already done to sell and then think about new things. I want to create designs I like and am interested in rather than just what will sell, as I'm doing this to improve my own professional practice rather than to make money, I don't expect to make a lot.

I need to find out postage costs, where is a cheap place to get the packaging, etc and look at more sites to see what my competition is selling. I could link this in with the enterprise stuff we learnt at the beginning of the year and do SWOT analysis and things like that.

I could also try and sell at small gift shops when I have some items ready to approach them with.

Things I could sell: (based on things I've already designed)
- alice in wonderland notecards
- gift pack containing a few different things such as A5 print, postcard, bookmark, stickers etc
- geometric patterned book
- dinosaur tea towels
- cupcake birthday cards

New things/themes to design:
- dalahorse
- stationery theme
- initials
- animlas
- perfume
- dragonflies and butterflies
- alphabet
- different shaped wine glasses etc
- cameras, vintage, new etc
- fruit and veg
- clocks
- playing cards
- camping theme

Materials I could cover:
- tea towels
- prints
- postcards
- notecards
- note books
- bookmarks
- gift tags
- keyrings and badges
- screenprints
- make your own sets
- stickers

Plan of action. (Starting as soon as the last module is handed in!)

1. What are postage costs, restrictions etc?
2. Where will I get the packaging from and how much?
3. Research other shops
4. Etsy Terms and conditions
5. Design!
6. Get designs printed
7. Decide prices
8. Set up shop
9. Promote
10. Evaluate progress

Monday, 28 May 2012

What I'll be doing over summer...

As well as working on all the targets I have set for myself, here are some of the events I'll be going to over summer. I went to quite a few of them last year and found them very useful, so am excited to return. I'll blog what I see after the events!

new blood

new designers

leeds college of art degree show

leeds uni degree show

http://www.reveal2012.leeds.ac.uk/

leets met degree show

man met degree show

design museum

http://www.londondesignfestival.com/

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/bauhaus-exhibition-london-article-11053.html

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/british-design-exhibition-london-article-11326.html

PPD Task: Spread The Word (Pt 2) [Final Social Media Outcomes]

Screenshots of my social media presence

[see development]

Here are the screenshots of my final social media presences. I will keep updating these regularly to keep my followers interested in what I am doing, so the pages might end up looking a bit different to these screen shots.

1. TUMBLR

http://claudiagriffin.tumblr.com

2. TWITTER

https://twitter.com/#!/CGriffin_GD

3. BEHANCE

http://www.behance.net/claudiagriffin

4. LINKEDIN

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/claudia-griffin/51/459/73b

Personal Project Ideas

Here are some of my ideas for personal projects that I'd like to start over the summer, to work on the things I have mentioned in my evaluation.

1. Sell at craft fairs and online

http://www.reetsweet.com/submissions/

http://www.etsy.com/sell?ref=so_sell

2. Collaboration with another graphic designer?

3. Branding design for another artist

4. Enter competition

http://www.graphiccompetitions.com/graphic-design/

5. Look for freelance work

6. Tutorial a day

7. Drawing a day - start a new blog?

http://giftedcompetition.tigerprint.uk.com/the-brief-2012/

Branding Specifications

These colours and fonts, and my logo, will be used in all of my design work to do with branding, to ensure everything is consistent and works as a set.

COLOURS/

FONTS/

LOGO/

CV Contact Progress

Friday 18th May

Posted CVs with personalised letter to:

Holden&Sons
Tigerprint
Beautiful Meme
The Branding Iron
Shape

... No response so far :(

Monday 28th May

Posted CVs with personalised letter to:

Lemon Zest

Glorious Creative

Grain

Turn key

Impression

Brainstorm

Wednesday 6th June

- Email everyone to remind them of letter because no one has replied!!
- Email the rest of the list!

[see list]

Friday, 25 May 2012

OUGD203 . PRODUCT.RANGE.DISTRIBUTION. Evaluation

PRODUCT.RANGE.DISTRIBUTION.

For this evaluation, I have looked back at the list I made at the start about what I wanted to achieve, to consider if I have done the things I wanted to.

http://c-griffin1013-dp.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/product-range-distribution-what-i-want.html

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

Through this brief I have developed the skills mentioned in the title of the brief, especially considering the range of products. After a workshop early on in this brief, I learnt that covering a range of products was important for many matters, such as making more money in the real world. Covering a range of outcomes is something that I said I wanted to do at the beginning, and I have applied this, by creating a set of packaging for about ten products.

As I had to write the brief myself, this is a skill I have developed, as normally, the brief has already been written for me. I had to make sure my brief was defined so I didn’t get stuck at a dead end because I had too many options, so I gave myself restrictions, such as limited colour palette. I think I have applied this skill well, as it is the first long brief that I haven’t felt I have got stuck with.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

I have developed my packaging skills, as its something I’ve barely touched on while I’ve been on this course. This has informed my design development process as I have focused on an area which I haven’t spend much time on before, which is something that I said I wanted to do initially. As a result, my presentation skills have improved, as this is so important with packaging, to get things perfect. I’ve also had to be more organised, as I had to consider in advance what I needed printing, to book print slots, and make sure there was enough time in case something went wrong. So by doing what I wanted to, I have ended up improving over skills as well.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalize on these?

I think with every evaluation that goes by I feel more confident with myself as a designer, and so find more strengths in my work as I am actually working hard on the things that I say I will do differently next time. I think feeling confident in my work is the greatest strength, as it was something I was really lacking. I am happy with my work and have enjoyed creating it. I can capitalise on this by promoting my work to help my PPD.

I have planned everything so that I have covered every aspect that I needed to, to really create the ‘Perfect Picnic’ as stated in the title of the YCN competition brief that my brief was adapted from. This has meant that I have covered a wide range of materials, and that the perfect picnic could actually be a realistic product.

I have set myself restrictions which I have stuck to, such as a limited colour palette and following the Marks and Spencer Plan A policy, and this has made an open brief in to a brief I could control. In the past, I have got stuck with open briefs, but I now know that having a defined direction is a good thing.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

A weakness is not taking risks with my work, which is something I am very aware of. I stick to what I know a lot of the time, and while my outcome for this brief isn’t similar to what I have done before, I don’t want to get stuck with a ‘style’ yet, so I need to continue to take risks and experiment more, to learn new things. Finding inspiration on blogs, asking others for their advice and trying tutorials will help me to create work that stands out from the rest of my work.

I have spent a lot of time on making sure my concept was how I wanted it to be, and this has meant that the design side was a bit rushed. I might have wanted to create more products, or just spend more time experimenting before deciding everything was ready to print. I think in future I need to decided what I am doing earlier on, so as not to waste any time. I can do this by continuously asking for feedback on my ideas, and not just waiting for crits.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

-1- I will make sure I consider book binding. My leaflet ended up turning out just fine, and I am happy with it, but I didn’t consider how it would be bound when designing, which could have meant that the leaflet wouldn’t fit together. This is something I have struggled with throughout the modules this year so definitely need to revisit book binding as I will probably be creating more publications next year.

-2- I need to experiment with creating type only pieces. I am happy with my final piece, but the focus isn’t as much on the type as I wanted it to be. As an image person, I wanted to experiment with type to help improve my skills, but I ended up turning the focus back to illustration. I need to be brave in the future and try a different direction, even if its not what I end up going with, as this will improve my overall design skills.

-3- I would arrange more print slots to print mock ups and print a few extras when making nets. Printing is always a stressful experience, and I was worried the colours wouldn’t work how I wanted to when I came to print, so having done a test run beforehand would have ensured I was happy with my prints.

-4- Continue to work on my photography skills so I can have the confidence to photograph my final pieces in context rather than just by themselves, as I think this will look better on my design boards.

-5- Print things more than 2 days before the hand in, so I have time to reprint if something goes wrong, and so I don’t have to rush creating my boards and doing my photo shoots.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas

(5= excellent 4=very good 3=good 2=average 1=poor)
Attendance = 4
Punctuality = 4
Motivation = 4
Commitment = 4
Quantity of work produced = 3
Quality of work produced = 3
Contribution to the group = 4

OUGD203. YCN. Evaluation

YCN...

1. What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them?

With this being a collaborative brief, my teamwork skills have improved. I was nervous about how I would find working with one person for such a long time before starting this brief, but I ended up realising that there are many benefits to collaborative work. The main one for me was that having someone to continually look at what you have designed is like constantly having a crit, so I kept getting feedback, which definitely helped improve my designs and made any mistakes were spotted. Next year I would like to do collaborative work again as I think it can really benefit my progress.

I have improved my presentation skills, as the final boards were such an important part of this brief, that we had to focus on them, and make sure they were perfect and there were no mistakes. Also with Chloe being a type person, while I am more of an image person, I learnt from her, and this can be seen in the boards, which are far more professional and look so much better than the boards I created for the print module. This will really help as in future I will have to create presentation boards for each brief.

2. What approaches to/methods of design production have you developed and how have they informed your design development process?

This brief has been focusing on promotion, which is a different approach to design production than what I am used to. It will help in future, as when I create a product, I can also consider how I will promote this product, rather than it existing out of context.

Most of the designs I have done have been digital, but we also did some laser cutting, which is something new to me. I was really pleased with the results from this and think my work can improve from making the most of this in the future.

This is the first time I ever used photos that weren’t mine and I thought I would have preferred to use my own, however, I understand this is more realistic, as designers work with photographers and other designs in a real design job.

3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalize on these?

After having my tutorial during this brief, I now understand what I need to do to improve my grades and therefore my design work. This is to link what I put on my design context blog to the work I am creating, this helping me to try new things and create better designs. I have tried to do this throughout my designs in this brief, and I have definitely noticed the improvement, so I will continue to do this in future. For example, with the websites I have created designs for, I would have previously designed one that I thought was okay and just gone with it. However, here, I have created many spin offs, before asking others and working with Chloe to decide which one works best, in the end, creating a far better design than I would have done initially.

I think the work I have created appeals to the target audience, which is something we have considered as it was an important part of the brief. We did a lot of research in to Peacocks and its target audience to ensure our designs were relevant. Through this brief I have kept re-reading the brief and considering what needs to be done, so that I don’t go off track. I will continue to do this, so that I create work that answers the brief as it should.

I think that overall my designs look better, this is partly because of the constant feedback helping me to improve my work. Also mocking my designs up in context helps everything to become more realistic so this is something I will make sure I keep up to keep improving.

4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these more fully?

A weakness is that I didn’t produce as much work as I normally would do. This is because I wanted to work at the same pace as Chloe so that I wasn’t taking over and so that our work loads could be similar, however, I have learnt that in group work this never really happens. I don't think our work loads ended up being the same, I think I worked very hard on this brief and made a lot of decisions and did a lot of design work, which I hope is clear through my contribution boards, but at the same time, I couldn't have done this without Chloe's feedback and the research that she did. I think I have ended up creating better quality work by creating less, but in future I need to find the right balance of quality and quantity of work, to improve my overall outcomes.

I am happy with what I did produce, and think I have learnt a lot, but I think next time I really need to push myself to do more, and do things differently, to create a more exciting outcome.

5. Identify five things that you will do differently next time and what do you expect to gain from doing these?

-1- Cover a wider range of materials to create a greater quantity of work and make the project more believable.

-2- I would have liked to create an actual working website to show the website design is suitable, creating design for screen which is different from my usual printed outcomes.

-3- I will think bigger, think beyond the obvious to create an outcome that really stands out - as this is what is needed for a competition entry.

-4- I would like to take my own photos, and improve my photography skills, to enhance my outcomes.

-5- I would have liked to have print more things rather than just mocking them up in context, as I think things look better when they are printed, if they are designed to be, as stock choices can really effect the final outcome.

6. How would you grade yourself on the following areas

(5= excellent 4=very good 3=good 2=average 1=poor)
Attendance = 4
Punctuality = 4
Motivation = 3
Commitment = 4
Quantity of work produced = 2
Quality of work produced = 3
Contribution to the group = 4